


Wingmen

by teasockschocolate



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Babysitting, Big Brother Phillip Carlyle, F/M, Fluff, Wingmen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 13:56:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14082447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teasockschocolate/pseuds/teasockschocolate
Summary: based on a tumblr prompt: write a prompt where Anne is babysitting Caroline and Helen and they ship Anne and Phillip, so they are kinda of being his wingman





	1. Chapter 1

Anne gracefully dismounted the trapeze with a backflip and stuck a landing on the ground. The stands were empty and the lights were dim, but she had found herself practicing more and more lately. She’d found it had helped temporarily quell the raging battle between her heart and her head whenever she caught Phillip Carlyle staring at her (which was more than either would like to admit). Her dismount was met with an enthusiastic applause and she turned to see Caroline and Helen Barnum perched at the edge of the rink. She playfully curtsied to the girls who curtsied back, their smiles widening.

“Girls!” Barnum ran into the rink, breathless. “I told you to stick by me. I have a lot to get done today. Oh, hello Anne.”

Anne smiled a greeting.

“Oh, Daddy,” Helen whined. “Do you have to run errands with you?”

Barnum sighed. “I told you, Helen, yes. Your mother is sick so you can’t be in the house and I have a lot to do for the show.”

“Can we just stay here?” Caroline pleaded. “Anne can watch us!”

“Oh, yes!” Helen squealed.

“I’m sure that Anne—“

“I don’t mind, Mr. Barnum.” Anne shrugged. “I’ve finished my practicing for the day anyway.”

“You’re a lifesaver, Anne. Truly. Thank you.” Barnum smiled. He kissed the top of both his daughters heads. “You be good for Anne, now. You hear?”

“Yes, Daddy,” They chorused, beaming.

Barnum ran off and suddenly Anne was very aware that she had no idea what to do with these kids.

After what felt like an eternity of awkward silence, she said “So…um… What’s your dad doing today that you guys didn’t want to do?”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “Boring meetings with Phillip.”

“I thought you guys liked him?”

“Oh, we do.” Helen sighed, plopping on the ground. “But in meetings he and Daddy are very serious and Daddy doesn’t let Phillip spin us or give us candy.”

“I see,” Anne laughed. “

But,” Caroline shot a secretive smile to her sister. “Phillip is really great. He’s so smart and nice.”

She nudged Helen who shot up to her feet. “He’s really fun too! He always plays with me and Caroline after his meetings with Daddy. And he comes over for dinner and sits between me and Caroline, not with Mommy and Daddy. He’s our brother now.”

“And he’s written all of those plays! He tells the greatest stories.” Caroline added.

“Hmm,” Anne narrowed her eyes in suspicion at the girls who batted their eyes innocently.

“Don’t you just love Phillip, Helen?”

“Oh, yes Caroline! Don’t you just love Phillip, Anne?”

“Mr. Carlyle is a fine man.” Anne said calmly.

“He’s pretty too,” Caroline giggled.

“And he thinks you’re pretty!” Helen cried.

“Helen!” Caroline rounded on her sister and shoved her. “You weren’t supposed to say that!” She hissed.

“Sorry,” Helen whispered and turned back to Anne. “Do you think he’s pretty, Anne?”

The corner of Anne’s mouth twitched in amusement. “He’s not revolting.”

“That means ugly. She said he’s not ugly.” Caroline whispered rather loudly to Helen.

“So, girls, did Mr. Carlyle… ask you to mention him to me?” Anne asked carefully, unsure of what she wanted the answer to be.

“Oh, no!” Helen assured her. “He always turns red when we talk about you to him.”

Anne felt a warmth rush to her cheeks. “Sort of like that!” Helen pointed.

“I have an idea!” Caroline said earnestly. “You and Phillip should get married, Anne!”

“You think so?” Anne raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, yes.” Caroline nodded. “Want to know a secret?”

“Sure,” Anne grinned.

“We think that Phillip loves you a lot. He looks at you like Daddy looks at Mommy.”

“Those men call Daddy and Phillip ‘Princes of Humbug’ so you could be like Phillip’s princess!” Helen squealed.

Anne flushed. “Wouldn’t that be something.”

“So will you marry him? Please?” Caroline bounced over to Anne and threw her arms around her, resting her chin on Anne’s ribcage.

“I don’t think so, sugarplum,” Anne twirled a lock of Caroline’s hair around her fingers, trying to avoid the look of heartbreak passed between the sisters.

“But he loves you! And don’t you love him?”

“That’s not always enough.” Anne smiled sadly. “You’ll understand when you’re older.”

Helen folded her arms in a pout.

“Hey,” Anne said with a smile, trying to change the topic which was just depressing for all three of them at this point. “You girls ever swung on a rope?”

_______________

Barnum returned to the ring some time later, Phillip with him. Barnum put out his arm to stop Phillip at the edge of the stands, enough in the shadows were they could see the three girls but they couldn’t see them.

Anne and Caroline stood on opposite sides of the ring carefully pushing Helen on a rope in between them. Helen shrieked and giggled as she slowly glided through the air, one arm extended and the other clinging to the rope for dear life, though she only hung about three feet off the ground.

“My turn, my turn!” Caroline called.

“Anne, catch me!” Helen yelled, flinging herself at the older girl who laughed her and spun her in a circle before setting her carefully on the ground. Helen sprinted to the other side of the ring as Caroline climbed onto the rope, a bit more daring than her little sister had.

“Anne is great, isn’t she?” Barnum said, glancing at Phillip.

Phillip grinned. “You sound like your daughters. The other day after dinner they kept talking to me about how pretty and graceful she was.”

“Sounds like them.” Barnum chuckled. “You not disagreeing, though.”

"No. No, I’m not.” Phillip smiled wistfully, watching Anne laughing as she pushed Caroline on the rope.

Barnum watched Phillip out of the corner of his eye, smiling. “Well, I should go get my children.”

“I should go,” Phillip said, somewhat reluctantly.

“Oh, nonsense. I’m sure the girls would be thrilled to see you.”

Phillip smiled. “Your daughters are something else.”

“I don’t mean just my daughters,” Barnum winked and pulled Phillip’s elbow into the rink with him.


	2. Chapter 2

“Phillip?”

He looked up and instantly smiled at the youngest Barnum standing in his office doorway.

“Hey there, Helen,”

“Hi,” She beamed. “Can you come down to the rink? Daddy needs help with something.”

“Oh, sure.” Phillip pushed back his chair and followed the girl downstairs. “What is it?”

“Dunno,” Helen shrugged and leapt off the last few steps.

“Good jump,” He chucked.

“I’m gonna fly like Anne one day. Anne says she thinks I could.” Helen puffed her chest proudly.

He ruffled her hair. “I bet you could.”

“She’s gonna teach me and Caroline when we get bigger as long as Mommy says it’s okay.” Helen announced as she weaved through backstage to the ring. “Anne’s the best.”

“What about me?” Philip teased.

Helen giggled. “You both are.” She pulled back the curtain and stepped into the ring.

“Phillip!” Caroline cheered. She was perched on Anne’s trapeze hoop, carefully swinging in a small circle with Anne spotting her.

His heart skipped a beat when Anne smiled at him. Her hair was loose, her long curls framing her thin face and wore a pretty green frock.

“Look at you!” Phillip laughed. “Where’s your dad?” Phillip looked around the otherwise empty space.

“What?” Helen frowned.

“Helen, you said he sent you to get me.”

“Caroline?” Anne raised an eyebrow at the spinning girl who conveniently avoided eye contact.

“Well,” Caroline shrugged and jumped out of the hoop. “Guess he doesn’t need you guys anymore. Sorry! Come on, Helen,” She grabbed her sister’s hand and led her backstage, both glancing eagerly over their shoulders.

“Huh,” Anne shook her head after the girls.

“Huh.” Phillip huffed a laugh and shifted his feet.

“So how—“

“Have you—“

“Sorry,”

“Sorry,”

The words came from both of them all at once and Phillip flushed while Anne laughed.

“You go,” Phillip nodded to Anne.

“Oh,” She leaned back against her hoop. “I was just going to ask how you did it. Get us all to go see the queen.” She smirked with a hint of a tease. “You must be very important.”

He ducked his head with a quiet laugh. “Oh, you know, just pulled a few strings. Called in a few favors.”

She tilted her head and he knew she was looking for more of an explanation.

“I have this friend from Oxford—“

“Oxford?”

“University. In England. It’s where I went to school. Studied law.”

“Oh,” Her eyes widened a little. “Wow.”

He shrugged. “I didn’t want to, my parents made me.”

“What’d you want to do?”

He shook his head. “It’s stupid.”

“Tell me!” She grinned.

“You’ll make fun of me,” He complained and she laughed.

“No, I promise,”

He sighed. “Okay. Well when I was little I wanted to dance. I used to watch my sister’s classes and always wanted to too.”

“Aww,”

“You’re laughing at me!” He whined.

“I’m not, I’m not,” Anne swore, pursing her lips but her eyes dancing. “That’s sweet. A tutu and everything?”

“Stop,” He groaned, rolling his eyes. “So obviously my parents were not taken with that, but I wanted to do something in the theater and so I got into writing. They didn’t really like that either. Said it wasn’t manly enough.”

“But you used to write plays, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” He shrugged. “Once I started making money they stopped judging. Then they told everyone they knew all along I was a genius.”

She raised the corner of her mouth in a sympathetic grimace.

“So anyway,” He continued. “One of my friends from school works in Parliament. I used to write his papers for him at school and he got us an audience with the queen. She already had heard about us though. Didn’t take much convincing for her to want to meet everyone.”

Anne hummed and pulled herself up so her feet dangled from the ground. She pumped her legs a little and swung back and forth. Her arms crossed over the top of the hoop, her chin rested a top them. The light caught her curls in an angelic glow and it baffled him how beautiful she was without even realizing it.

“So,” Anne’s voice snapped him back. “What were you going to say earlier?”

“Oh,” He frowned, trying to remember. It’d been something stupid. Something he’d tried to think of on the stop to get her to talk to him, even if just for a minute. “Um, any new tricks?”

She narrowed her amber eyes. “A few. You’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?”

“Nothing too dangerous, I hope?”

“Ahh,” Anne slipped off the hoop, standing in front of him. She had an inch or two above him and he stretched his torso to try to stand taller. “Where’s the fun if it’s not a little dangerous, eh Mr. Carlyle?” She threw him a smirk before brushing past him. “See you,”

It wasn’t until she was gone that he realized just how fast his heart was racing. He knew was a goner.

**Author's Note:**

> follow my tumblr (same username) for all my fics and send me prompts!


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